newbie from PA

[fortheloveofferret]

I've been on here for a little while now and have made a few posts here and there, but I guess I was supposed to start here first...oops. Well, I'm here now. My name is Jessica, I'm 24, and I live in PA. I got my first ferret on March 3, 2006 and have been hooked ever since. I have four now, but did have five, I just dealt with my first ferret loss (Zoey - the one in my pic) earlier this month - that was a lot harder to deal with than I ever imagined it to be. But her death was also kind of sudden and she passed away while with the vet, so those two things made it even harder. Anyway, my vet is the one that actually got me into the holistic care - she's really into homeopathic treatments (accupuncture, flower essences, herbs, cold laser therapy, and more) and very anti-chemicals, but she is knowledgable with "traditional" treatments as well. She's also helping me switch my ferrets to a whole prey diet. Right now I feed them EVO, ZiwiPeak, and Wysong and some of the freeze-dried "treats" from stinkweasels (S&C, POgOs, AFS sprinkles). I'm planning on starting the switch on November 1st (first to raw, then eventually to whole prey). I would have started the switch earlier, but problems with Zoey started, then with Chloe (I think she got depressed after Zoey passed away), and I figured I should make sure they're all good and healthy before trying to get them to switch. So, that's my ferret story. There's not too many ferret owners around me, so I'm hoping to make a few new ferret-owning friends through this site. You can also catch me on naturalferrets.com.

[Forum Administrator]

Hey, its great to hear a little more about you (I've seen you lurking about ) . I am terribly sorry about the loss of Zoey. I lost my first ferret, Samson, in July. He got an intestinal blockage and he went downhill very fast. It was all so very unexpected and it was devestating (to both me and his lifelong cagemate, Delilah).

I hope that in time you are able to heal, and while I hope (and know) you will never forget about Zoey, I hope that you will eventually not be in so much pain. Time is a great healer.

I am thrilled to hear that you have such a wonderful vet! You should send her our way, we are always thrilled to have holistically-minded vets on our forum.

I hope you make yourself at home. We have our Mentoring Program (I'm sure you've seen it). If you are interested, however its not *required* that you join (just a nice option. ).

I hope to see you around the forum. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

[Heather]

Hi Jessica and welcome on board.
Sounds like you have an absolutely awesome vet...too cool not to have to fight for your furbabies right to eat what is it's right to eat
I'm sorry for your loss of your little one, Zoe. These little creatures tread heavily on our hearts and when they leave, the hole that they leave is truly hard to fill. In the end sweet memories offer solace along with the belief that one's goodbyes are only temporary
Good luck in your switching endeavors. Please remember we're here to help if you need us . Feel free to post and enjoy prowling the forum.
ciao

[charmantpapillon]

nice to see you im sorry bou the loss of the baby.*hugs*a lot of us on here have lost someone/thing close to our hearts in some way r another we feel your pain. they arent just pets. they're family. its like losing a mother.. or a father.. or a sibling or a child its never easy.

[suds]

Always nice to see more peeps from Pa here

[Jaycee]

Welcome aboard! Don't worry about having done things backwards...that is how I function!!!

Hope to see you around the forum!

[fortheloveofferret]

Thanks for all the welcomes and sympathies. I agree with you, Heather - ferrets tread very heavily on our hearts. I've lost a lot of pets in my life, but losing Zoey seemed to be the hardest. I'm sorry to hear about your Samson, Giuli. I was actually reading your post about him shortly after Zoey passed and it brought tears to my eyes. Dealing with the loss of a pet is definitely the hardest part of having pets.

Yes, I do tend to "lurk" a bit on forums, or else sign up and then never return. There's just too much other stuff going on. I'm trying to do better and be a little more active on forums, but don't be surprised if I only pop in every once in awhile. And for that reason, I probably won't be getting involved with the mentoring program you guys have going on here. It seems like a good thing, but I'm not sure if I'd be able to commit to the weekly posts or not. I have my vet helping, so I should be good, but thanks anyway. I might still ask some questions on here every now and then and maybe make some posts about how the switch is going.

And, as for my vet, I don't think she's much into the internet. I mentioned a few things to her (like the ferret health and mailing lists), and she just kind of brushed them off and said "I don't get into that stuff." When I found her, I wasn't really looking for a holistic vet, I just moved about a year ago and she happened to be the closest ferret vet (only five minutes from my house). I didn't know what to think about the holistic care at first, but I liked her from the beginning, and the more I learned from her, the more I liked the idea of treating my pets with holistic meds. Are you guys aware of this site - www.holisticvetlist.com/ ? If you're not familiar with it, you can use it to find holistic vets in your area. It might be helpful for those that want a holistic vet but don't know where to look.

Well, anyway, thanks again for all the welcomes! I hope to see you all around the forum.